The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre joined forces with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra for entertainment on a grand scale in an auditorium twice the size of the standard concert hall. John Williams’s magnificent score to this classic film was performed live while reliving the magic of the silver screen with the original uncut version of the film shown in its entirety behind and above the orchestra.
Williams’s compositional credentials are impeccable – he is one of Hollywood’s great success stories having written some of the most popular and recognisable film scores in cinematic history including Jaws, the Star Wars series, Superman, the Indiana Jones series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and the first three Harry Potter films. At heart he is classical composer steeped in the traditions of Wagner and Strauss and this is where his success lies. He has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, and 22 Grammy Awards.
His heroic music for Raiders of the Lost Ark is a major drawcard to the film’s enjoyment of the film with its instantly recognisable leitmotivs including the famous Indiana Jones theme, The Raiders March, special ethereal music composed to represent the Ark of the Covenant and suitable ‘evil’ music for the Nazi villains. It adds texture and substance to the film’s narrative.
Conductor Marc Taddei conducted the full forces of the Queensland Symphony with clarity and a sense of purpose. He clearly relished this score and its complexities. The orchestra played exceptionally well, with all credit to the percussion and brass who carry the bulk of the score throughout much of the film, particularly in the Indiana Jones theme itself. Technically, the score and orchestral sound were seamlessly synchronised with the film.
It was disappointing that, being seated so far back in the auditorium, it was almost impossible to distinguish that this was a live orchestra playing as opposed to hearing the soundtrack to a film. It was also disconcerting and jarring from this vantage point that the sound from the orchestra came from a different place to the spoken narrative of the film. Maybe if one was closer to the stage this may not have been a problem. But the large and cavernous auditorium was not a suitable venue to hear the orchestra and the subtleties of the score in its best light. And being so far away from the screen, the images also did not have the clarity to make this an overwhelming sensaround experience, which is what it clearly needed to be. From an orchestral perspective, the best moments were those few sections where the orchestra played alone as an overture or finale without film or dialogue distractions.
Aficionados of the Spielberg Indiana Jones series could indulge their fantasies in reliving the heroic exploits of the intrepid hero, ably played by a youthful Harrison Ford, with the usual round up of despicable enemies, never a match for the hero. Having long been a fan of this series and loving them all the first and third times around, it is clear that some 35 years on the film is dated and ridiculously implausible. Nevertheless it still has a certain charm and a definite magic, not least because the rogue hero ultimately displays moral turpitude and the tenacity to win over evil at all odds.
Clearly the almost packed auditorium enjoyed the event, though there were visible mutterings in the back sections about the inability to hear the orchestral sound in all its glory. The event had much to recommend it as an entertainment but, if one really wanted to watch the movie and hear the total sound properly, then a cinema with the original soundtrack would definitely be the best place. The BCEC additions, including a live orchestra, were simply superfluous.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Live with Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
6 February 2016
